How to Easily Remark or Unremark Multiple Lines of Code

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0 and 3.0b

SUMMARY

Programmers often need to remark and unremark multiple lines of code. Automating this process is explained below.

MORE INFORMATION

The program below will cut selected text to the clipboard, manipulate the text, and paste the code back to your program.

1. Create a new program called Remark that contains the following code:

   ***************** Begin REMARK.PRG ******************** SET PROCEDURE TO remark DO remark1

   PROCEDURE remark1

         DEFINE BAR 1 OF _medit ;
            PROMPT "Remark" ;
            AFTER _med_clear ;
            KEY ctrl+k, "Ctrl+K";
            MESSAGE "Remark lines of Code" ;
            SKIP FOR remark4()
   
         DEFINE BAR 2 OF _medit ;
            PROMPT "Un-Remark" ;
            AFTER 1 ;
            KEY ctrl+u, "Crtl+U";
            MESSAGE "Remove Remarked lines of Code"
   
         ON SELECTION BAR 1 OF _medit DO remark2 WITH 1
         ON SELECTION BAR 2 OF _medit DO remark2 WITH 0
         RETURN
   
      PROCEDURE remark2
         PARAMETERS xxx
         PUBLIC yyy
         yyy=xxx
         _cliptext=""
         ON KEY LABEL F12 DO remark3
         KEYBOARD '{ctrl+x}{f12}{ctrl+v}'
         RETURN
   
      PROCEDURE remark3
         IF yyy=1
            _cliptext='* '+STRTRAN(_cliptext,chr(13),chr(13)+'* ')
            IF RIGHT(_cliptext,2)="* "
              _cliptext=SUBSTR(_cliptext,1,LEN(_cliptext)-2)
            ENDIF
         ELSE
            _cliptext=STRTRAN(_cliptext,CHR(13)+'* ',CHR(13))
            IF LEFT(_cliptext,2)="* "
               _cliptext=SUBSTR(_cliptext,3)
            ENDIF
         ENDIF
         RETURN
   
      FUNCTION remark4
         IF SKPBAR('_medit',_med_copy)
            SET SKIP OF BAR 1 OF _medit .T.
            SET SKIP OF BAR 2 OF _medit .T.
            x=.t.
         ELSE
            SET SKIP OF BAR 1 OF _medit .F.
            SET SKIP OF BAR 2 OF _medit .F.
            IF SKPBAR('_medit',1)
               DO remark
            ENDIF
            x=.f.
         ENDIF
         RETURN x
   
      ***************** End REMARK.PRG **********************
   
   

2. In the Command window, type:

   DO REMARK

3. Remark and UnRemark are now available as options under the FoxPro Edit menu.

4. Open any program file other than Remark.prg.

5. Select (highlight) a block of code, and then on the Edit menu, click Remark. The lines of code are automatically changed to Remark Statements with an asterisk (*) at the beginning of each highlighted line.

6. Select the block of code again, and then on the Edit menu, click UnRemark. The asterisk (*) is removed from the beginning of each highlighted line.